


the jig is up, the news is out

by Engineerd



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fugitives, Identity Reveal, the world finds out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 03:48:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15501669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineerd/pseuds/Engineerd
Summary: “Chat,” Ladybug - Marinette said urgently. “Hawkmoth knows who we are, now. Hawkmoth knows where we sleep.”“Okay,” Adrien said, thinking. “So either we beat him today before we go to sleep or - we don’t sleep.”“We can’t not sleep, Chat, we just can’t...go home,” she finished.Adrien let out a shaky sigh. He’d always known this day might come, he’d just - hoped it wouldn’t. “Okay,” he repeated. “Where would we go?”





	the jig is up, the news is out

The first time it happened, they were able to contain it. 

The akuma - Chloe’s father, under the disguise - tugged at Chat’s ring just hard enough to budge the transformation. Marinette, trapped behind them under most of a building, could only watch in horror as the back of a boy in tank-top and sweatpants became visible. 

The akuma seemed startled too, enough for civilian-Chat to pounce forward and thrust his finger into the ring again, the black suit coating him instantly.  _ “Cataclysm,”  _ Chat hissed, leaping forward and pressing his index finger to the akuma’s head. 

The man slumped to the ground instantly. “Chat!” Marinette gasped, eyes widening, struggling against the concrete holding her in place. “What did you-”

He turned around quickly and rushed over, pushing the rubble off her. “I just destroyed the memory of seeing me,” he said, ears drooping. “I’m sorry Ladybug, I panicked, I know it could have gone wrong, but...”

Marinette blinked as the last of the weight slid off her back and she straightened up. “Actually, that’s brilliant.”  

His eyes widened. “Thanks,” he said, glancing over at Mayor Bourgeois and biting his lip. “Provided he wakes up…”

“He’ll wake up,” Marinette reassured, stepping forward and breaking his sash. It was easy to cleanse and cure the akuma without any resistance, and Mayor Bourgeois stirred almost immediately after she cried, “Miraculous Ladybug!” 

Chat let out a huge breath of relief.  _ “Mon dieu,”  _ he murmured under his breath, and then turned to Ladybug. “Did you see me?” 

Marinette shook her head. “I saw enough to see that you’re in pajamas, but nothing identifiable,” she said. “By the way, pajamas? It’s only 7 pm!” 

“They’re comfy,” Chat defended, and then his ring beeped. “I gotta pounce, my lady. See you next time?” 

“Bien joué,” Marinette said, tapping her fist to his. He smiled and then vaulted away while she took care of Mayor Bourgeois. Chat had been so quick about it, they seemed to have even escaped Hawkmoth’s notice, for now. 

 

* * *

 

 

They weren’t so lucky the next time it happened. 

Maybe they’d been lucky to last as long as they had. 

They’d been fighting Hawkmoth for over three years. They were on the Champs-Elysees, and they were fighting an akuma who absorbed powers. Ladybug wanted to call him Parasite, while Chat Noir had nicknamed him Kirby. 

The akuma, who insisted his real name was Power Vacuum, had stolen the magnetizing power of the magnet-train to attach Adrien to a streetlight by the zippers of his suit. Ladybug had left 20 seconds ago to recharge her kwami after her first lucky charm had failed, and his staff was useless. In front of him, Power Vacuum was laughing. 

“The powers of pure destruction,” he gloated. “First I’m going to cataclysm you, and then I’m going to raze  _ all of Paris.”  _

Adrien quickly calculated that his civilian clothes hadn’t contained any metal -  and dropped the transformation. 

An angry 17-year-old boy in a t-shirt launching himself head-first had clearly been the last thing Power Vacuum had expected, so Adrien had the advantage of surprise for about 3 seconds, which was just long enough for him to grab the anger management certificate out of the akuma’s breast pocket. He had no clear plan for what to do afterwards, so it was a bit of a relief to feel a familiar cord wrapping itself around his middle. 

The rope-burn when Ladybug hauled him towards her was new. 

Gasping for breath as the yoyo’s wire dug into his diaphragm, he held out the piece of paper for Ladybug to rip. Her earrings were beeping practically constantly, so she’d probably already pushed herself to the limit- 

_ She’d come back for him.  _

Power Vacuum gave a roar as Ladybug cleansed the Akuma and cried “ _ Miraculous Ladybug!”  _ just before her transformation gave out. 

Adrien stared at Ladybug.  _ Wow, she looks a lot like Marinette,  _ his brain marveled. 

She stared up at him with wide eyes. “Adrien?!” she gasped. 

Yup, that was Marinette, he thought, trying to remember how to speak. 

She visibly shuddered and looked around at them, hugging herself against the fall chill. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance you cataclysm all of these people’s memories?” 

Adrien tore his gaze away to look at all the surrounding people. Traffic around them was still stopped - they’d been fighting in the middle of a broad intersection in the middle of morning rush hour, and there were at least a hundred cameras pointed at them right now. “Not a hundred people, my lady,” he said. “And not in time to beat the internet.” 

“Fuck,” she swore quietly. 

He looked back down at her. “You wanna get out of here?” he said. “I’ve still got juice. I only dropped it because-”

“I know,” she interrupted. “I heard. You made the right call. I’d like that.” 

Adrien transformed instantaneously, took two purposeful steps forward, gathered Marinette in his arms and launched them in the air in the space of about two seconds. It wasn’t fast enough to cover the secret they had just revealed to all of Paris.  

Nothing would ever be fast enough to cover for them ever again. 

 

* * *

 

Adrien awkwardly dropped them off in the courtyard of their lycee. There was still over a half hour before school began, so the building was largely deserted. He dropped the transformation again as soon as they landed. Marinette seemed in shock, but largely indifferent to the leaps - of course, he had carried her around that way several times before. In her civilian form and everything. 

“We’re here,” he said awkwardly, letting Marinette back to the ground. 

She nodded, licking her wind-chapped lips. “Yeah. Thanks, Cha - Adrien.” 

He grimaced. “No problem, Lady -” he cut himself off. “Marinette. Sorry.” 

She stared up at him. “You’re Adrien,” she repeated. “You’re  _ Adrien.  _ I knew Chat, and I knew Adrien, but not  _ Chat is Adrien  _ and-” she looked away, flushing. “Sorry. I..”

“No,” he said, feeling like his mouth was full of cotton. “It’s the same for me, too. I thought I would have…” 

Her eyes reflected the grayness of the cloudy morning above them. “Chat,” she said, sounding distinctively more like Ladybug, “everyone knows who we are.” 

It was easier to think like Chat Noir when she addressed him like that. “It’ll take the general public a few hours to recognize us,” he said, proud of how official his voice sounded. “Anyone who knows us will recognize us right away.” 

“Alya probably already knows.” 

_ Holy crap,  _ Alya, owner of the Ladyblog, had been best friends with Ladybug this whole time. Talk about irony. “Alya doesn’t know about,” Adrien asked, making a gesture that vaguely resembled his mask-swiping motion, “does she?”

“No!” Marinette snapped. “No one knows. Did you tell anyone?”

“No!” he answered quickly. “It would be too…” 

She finished his train of thought, “dangerous.” 

They paused for a long moment. “Right.” 

“Chat,” Ladybug - Marinette said urgently. “Hawkmoth knows who we are, now. Hawkmoth knows where we sleep.”

“Okay,” Adrien said, thinking. “So either we beat him today before we go to sleep or - we don’t sleep.” 

“We can’t not sleep, Chat, we just can’t...go home,” she finished. 

Adrien let out a shaky sigh. He’d always known this day might come, he’d just - hoped it wouldn’t. “Okay,” he repeated. “Where would we go?”

Marinette hugged herself. “I don’t know,” she whispered, looking down. 

His heart didn’t stand a chance. He had her in his arms in one stride. “Hey, that’s okay,” he soothed, wrapping his arms around Marinette’s shoulders. “That’s fine. It was a dumb question - we’ll figure it out on the way there.” 

She clenched fistfuls of the front of his shirt. “Yeah,” she whispered hoarsely. “Man, we do not have time for a freakout right now.” 

She was right. Adrien put a hand on each of her shoulders and forced her backwards. “We have maybe 15 minutes before people start getting here,” he said. “We can take all the things from our lockers, but…”

She nodded. “We can’t go home,” she said. “Not until Hawkmoth is defeated. He might still come after our families, but it’ll be less if we cut ties.” 

Adrien swallowed, determined not to think of his father. “Right,” he agreed. “Locker room?” 

He hadn’t brought his backpack with him when he left the house this morning, so he shoved everything from his locker into his fencing bag. It wasn’t much - a few pictures, his gym shoes, a few spare wheels of cheese. 

Plagg was floating next to him. “You’ve been quiet,” Adrien remarked, decided to take all his textbooks with him. All his bags disappeared when he transformed, anyways, so it’s not like they’d be heavy. 

“You’ve been busy,” Plagg remarked quietly. 

Adrien stopped to stare at his kwami. “We’re doing the right thing, right?” he said.

This was the most solemn he’d ever seen Plagg. “I’m sorry, kid,” is all he said. 

Adrien swallowed the lump in his throat and kept packing. His fencing bag was bulging with all the notebooks and old school papers he’d stuffed inside, but Adrien probably needed all the reminders of his old life he could get. 

The only thing he left inside his locker was his cell phone. 

He zipped up his bag and threw it over his shoulders, walking over to the other side of the hall where Marinette was distributing all her things between a spare backpack and two lunchboxes. Her locker had been a lot more decorated than Adrien’s. “Here,” he said, opening up his bag to accept some of the make-up and first aid she’d had shoved in her locker. She smiled gratefully and placed her things in with his. “I took all my textbooks,” he said. “I left physics and English at home, so if you have only bring those two then we won’t have any duplicates.” 

Marinette let out a dry laugh. “Ladybug and Chat Noir going on the run with nothing but a set of mid-lycee textbooks.”

“We won’t run out of boring stuff to read,” Adrien agreed. 

Marinette stared at the inside of her locker, also strangely bare. “I think I have everything,” she said. “I don’t…”

“I left my phone behind,” Adrien admitted. “Nothing with a GPS. Clean break.” 

She blinked. “Yeah. That’s smart.” She took her mobile phone out of her pocket and placed it on the top shelf. “Clean break.” 

She shrugged her backpack over her shoulder and they left the locker room together, only to bump into someone as soon as they entered the hallway. 

“Nino,” Adrien said, clutching the strap of his bulging fencing bag to his chest. 

Nino took step back in shock. “Hey,” he greeted. “I saw on the news, and - I knew I’d never be able to break into your house, so I thought - here you are.” 

Adrien glanced at Marinette, seeing the pain and resolution he felt himself reflected in her eyes. Not wanting to draw it out longer than necessary, he took one step forward and embraced Nino, clapping him on the back once before backing away. “I love you, man,” he said, staring Nino dead in the eyes. “No matter what happens, remember that.” 

Nino blinked. “So it’s true then?” 

“Tell Alya I’m sorry,” Marinette blurted out, not making eye contact. She looked out towards the door instead, and asked, “think we can sneak out of here?” 

“On foot?” Adrien asked. “How far are we going to get that way?” 

Nino frowned, and for the time seemed to notice their bags. “Wait,” he said. “Where are you going?” 

“Fuck it,” Adrien decided out loud, and transformed in an instant. He was met with Marinette and Nino’s gaping faces. 

“Chat!” she yelled. 

“What?” he said. “He already knew! You knew! We’ll get farther this way.”

She sighed loudly. “You’re so impulsive,” she chided, but transformed also. 

“It’s always worked out before,” he said, ignoring Nino’s open mouth. “Your lead or mine, my lady?” 

“Always mine,” she teased, grabbing her yoyo. She hesitated for a second, said “Sorry, Nino,” and then threw her yoyo and the roof and leapt. 

Adrien didn’t look back as he followed her. 

**Author's Note:**

> this was only lightly edited so please point out any mistakes. 
> 
> there may be more parts to this later, i'm undecided. 
> 
> thanks for reading!


End file.
